'My Unexpected Pregnancy Was The Best Thing To Ever Happen To Me'

Five women share their stories.

Just so you know: While Women's Health editors independently select all products we feature, product links may be from affiliate partners. That means if you buy something, Women's Health gets a portion of the proceeds.

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When you pop the Pill or slip on that condom, you usually have one main goal in mind: preventing pregnancy. But, in many cases, birth control isn’t as quite as foolproof as you might think. Condoms fail about 18 percent of the time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And even the patch, Pill, ring, diaphragm and injectable birth control don’t do their job during 9 percent of romps.

And if you do end up with an unexpected plus one...what then? For some women who accidentally conceive, keeping a baby isn’t the right decision. However for others, an accidental pregnancy doesn’t change things for the worse. In fact, in the case of these five women, having unplanned babies ended up totally transforming their lives for the better.

Christine Frapech

“I was that flight attendant that you've read about, with a man in every port. I had a blast, and watched my poor friends with husbands and kids suffer. That was never going to be me…or so I thought. I was dating a man who I really wasn’t interested in. He wasn’t my type. He was normal, not so attractive—just a nice guy. Somehow we fell in love and he wanted to get married. No chance! He asked what it would take for me to consider marriage. I told him it would take a miracle.

“Two weeks later, I found out I was pregnant…at 42 years old. After being on the pill for 20 years, my period had stopped, so I stopped the pill and was using a diaphragm instead. I did a lot of soul-searching before I decided that I would keep the baby. My son Alex was born right after I turned 43.

"Fast forward 10 years: My husband decided to stop working. Had I been a solo, I would have been fine on a flight attendant’s salary, but that was not the case. I prayed for some guidance, and that night had the idea for my product, Finders Key Purse, which was so successful it enabled me to quit my day job. My son is now 23 and helps out at the company warehouse while attending college.” —Sandy Stein, 66

“When I got pregnant with my first baby, a son, I had fairly severe preeclampsia. I didn’t want to risk having another child for my own safety, and I was concerned about having a second baby after the age of 35, so I decided to have a tubal ligation after birth.

“About four months after I gave birth, my husband and I found out we’d conceived our second baby even though I should have had permanent birth control. As it turns out, my obstetrician later told me she forgot to do the tubal ligation after my first delivery!! (Needless to say I wasn't happy, and I switched ob-gyns.) However, I was thrilled to find out I was having the little girl I never imagined I’d have.” —Maat van Uitert, 37, blogger at The Frugal Chicken

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“When I found out I was pregnant at 25, my boyfriend and I had only been dating six months and I was on a combination birth control pill. I was pretty on top of taking it, and I can't remember missing one around the time of conception, so the pregnancy was a huge shock. But it felt right from the beginning.

“My pregnancy and birth were transformative and overwhelming and showed me that I'm capable of making it through anything. During the pregnancy, I realized I couldn't continue my career as a home organizer with a baby and I needed to find a new path.

See what these moms have to say about how their daughters changed their lives:

Christine Frapech

“My fiancé Todd and I had a pregnancy announcement that went viral a few months ago. We posed in front of a brick wall that read ‘It still works.’ He's been paralyzed from the chest down since October 2014. He was a professional motocross rider and was practicing for the upcoming season, when he went off a jump and his bike stalled mid-air. He landed head first from about 20 feet high and was paralyzed at his T4, meaning he doesn't have voluntary movement from the nipple line down. I was a recovery specialist and Todd was a client at my company; we worked together twice in his six months there and later became a couple.

“Right when Todd got injured, he asked whether or not he would be able to have kids. Doctors told him it was possible but unlikely to happen naturally.

“When I got pregnant, we were not using protection. We didn't think it was impossible to conceive, but since Todd rarely climaxes we went on being careless. Still, the pregnancy came as a happy surprise. We got engaged this past January, and I’m due on August 6th!” —Amanda Diesen, 25

“My son was the result of a condom failure, and I experienced pregnancy and parenthood as a single mom. The father of my child (and ex) wanted no part of it—he even denied his paternity until the test confirmed he was the dad. Still, at the age of 28, keeping my pregnancy wasn't as hard a decision to make as it can be for some women: I was already college-educated and world-traveled and had a supportive family.

“In the two decades since then, I’ve faced economic ruin more than once, had to help take care of my parents when they got sick, struggled to date, and dealt with all the challenges that come with being a single mom. While it would have been nice to have a partnership during my parenthood, it just didn’t happen for me, and that's okay. All of my ups and downs led to my writing a self-help book for women who decided to continue surprise pregnancies! And soon, I'll be sending my son off to university. I’ve never had any regrets. My son is the light of my life.” —Mari Gallion, 48, HappySinglePregnancy.com

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